Come in Peace
by Orange H
Summary: The three intergalactic refugees we've all come to know and love have encountered a curious human tradition: 'Christmas'. One can only hope they survive the holidays.
1. What's This?

**Welcome! Here's a short little drabble I produced over the holidays - I wanted to get the first half out while I worked on the second half. Updates every day until done - should be 13 or 14 chapters (intro, epilogue, and '12 days of Christmas' with each day as a chapter. It'll make more sense as it goes on.)**

 **Enjoy, and please leave a review! All criticism appreciated as long as it's constructive.**

 **Merry Christmas!**

Lance grumbled, and with a puff of air blew his ever-growing locks out of his eyes. He really needed a haircut.

He sighed once more as he looked out the window of the minivan's backseat, his warm breath causing condensation to form on the window chilled by the outside air. After a moment, the teenager lifted a finger and drew a frowny face on the window before the picture disappeared once more.

"Lance!" A sharp rebuke came from the passenger seat in front of him, and the boy lazily swung his eyes forward to meet the frown reflected back at him in the rearview mirror.

"Yes, Ilana?"

"Stop being such a frowny-face! This is supposed to be the happiest time of the year!"

Lance raised a single eyebrow, and rested his chin in his hand as he replied, "It's not happy until school's out."

"I've been detecting an abundance of similar sentiments amongst our peers. It seems they are all eager for the break of winter."

"You two! You know that's not what I meant!"

Lance shrugged. "I don't see what's so happy about having to add another layer every morning so I don't freeze on the way to classes, or having to buy _galoshes_ to trudge through cold baby powder."

"It's snow, Lance! Snow! We had it back on Galaluna!"

"Eh. Whatever."

"Ugh!" Ilana threw her head back against the headrest and moaned in frustration at her comrades' stubbornness. "You two are hopeless. Where's your holiday spirit? Lighten up!"

"Newton" gave Ilana as much of a sideways glance as he could while still watching the road. "Holiday spirit?"

"Yeah! I learned today about this _great_ thing that they celebrate here on Earth! Well, most people celebrate it, some people celebrate other holidays at this time of year –"

A long, drawn-out moan from the backseat interrupted what was sure to become a veritable lecture on Earth culture from the teenage girl. Ilana fully turned around from shotgun to glare at her 'brother', who had just finished rolling his eyes dramatically.

"Of _all_ the times to be an angsty grump, you just _had_ to do it when I was in the middle of talking?"

Lance's eyes turned forward, uninterested. "Angsty?"

"Angst", Newton replied. "a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general. Example: "adolescent angst"."

"I am _not_ angsty."

"I personally prefer the urban dictionary definition", Newton replied with something suspiciously close to a smirk. "Angst, often confused with anxiety, is a transcendent emotion in that it combines the unbearable anguish of life with the hopes of overcoming this seemingly impossible situation. Without the important element of hope, then the emotion is anxiety, not angst. Angst denotes the constant struggle one has with the burdens of life that weighs on the dispossessed and not knowing when the salvation will appear."

Both Ilana and Lance moved to look at their robot friend in confusion. After a moment of silence, Newton's eyes shifted to look at them for a second, and he readjusted his hands on the steering wheel to a more perfect ten-and-two position. "I could also read the definition of 'teen angst', but that includes profanity and-"

" _No_ ", the two teenagers chorused. Newton shrugged nonchalantly and Lance returned to his melancholic gazing out of the window.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Ilana tried again. "So, the holidays here on Earth mostly refer to the month of December, at the end of which the humans here celebrate something called 'Christmas', where-"

"Christmas: The celebration of the birth of commercialism... Oh yeah, and Jesus. Example: _I'm gonna set up traps to kill Santa –"_

"Octus, for once", Lance groaned, "I think I'd prefer Ilana's explanation."

"Yes", Ilana smirked. "Thank yo- _hey_!"

The lock to the front door of the Lunis household clicked open with a key, and the three interstellar refugees entered the frigid household as Newton remotely flipped on the lights, heater, and fireplace on his way to the kitchen to brew some hot chocolate.

Lance and Ilana both trudged toward the growing fireplace, shrugging off their backpacks as Ilana grabbed two blankets and Lance pulled up an armchair and a beanbag. As had they had become accustomed to as the months grew increasingly chilly, Lance sat down in the armchair and Ilana plopped onto her beanbag, both grabbing their respective blankets and backpacks before pulling out their homework for the night.

"Okay, so let me get this straight", Lance groaned as he hefted his history book onto his lap. "The people here blow tons of money to bribe their family and friends into putting up with them for another year by buying each other presents, putting them under a dead, decoratd piece of nature, and exchanging them on the 25th of December every year. Meanwhile, small children bake sweets and leave out another animal's lactate for a mysterious, bearded, immortal fat man who annually breaks into people's houses by somehow sliding down the chimney to leave even more bribes anonymously, and he does this for every house in the world with his magical flying reindeer and the help of his small, pointy-eared, midget slaves called 'elves'. And somewhere in here, a super-special baby named 'Jesus' was born, like, 2,000 years ago on the same night under a really big star in a barn. Do I have that right?"

"Pretty much", replied Newton from the kitchen, and Ilana groaned and fell back into her beanbag, covering her face with her hands.

" _No_ , that's not – you know what, actually? _Sure_ , Lance. _Sure_."

The boy shrugged. "Okay. I guess that's no weirder than when thousands of poultry died and people wore funny hats and got together with the family they hated a couple of weeks ago on 'Thanksgiving'." Lance ruffled through his bag. " You said there were other holidays?"

"I am _not_ going to explain some of the most sacred human rituals and traditions just to have you butcher them with your cynicism, angst, and lack of holiday spirit."

"I am _not_ angsty!" Lance huffed as he opened his book and slapped a blank sheet of lined paper and a pen onto the table next to his armchair.

"I beg to differ. I actually agree with Ilana on this one," Newton said as he came into the living room with two steaming hot chocolates and gave them to their respective owners. "I combed through 'angsty' movies the humans here have made while I was making these beverages, and you are certainly the tall, dark, handsome, and cynical teenage boy that is often afflicted with angst and occasionally classified as 'emo'-"

" _Nnngh_ ", Lance groaned into his hands as Ilana stifled a giggle over her hot chocolate.

After a moment of shuffling to balance his hot chocolate, history book, and paper atop his blanketed lap, Lance sighed. "So, why did you tell us about this… ' _Christmas'_ stuff in the first place?"

Ilana grinned brightly, and Lance raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Because, Lance!" she exclaimed. "We're going to celebrate Christmas this year!"


	2. One Christmas Tree

**On the first day of Christmas, this planet gave to me….**

"A Christmas tree? _Really_?"

"If we're going to celebrate Christmas, Lance", Ilana murmured as she strolled around the lot in pursuit of a suitable specimen, "we might as well do it right."

The onyx-haired boy huffed and shoved his hands into his pockets, his breath turning to fog in the frigid morning air. "I still don't see why we're celebrating Christmas, much less strolling around here on a Saturday morning…"

"I told you, silly! If we're supposed to blend in here, we need to follow tradition!" Ilana turned a corner, her mittened hands behind her back as she peered curiously around her.

Lance sighed, and shook his head with the slightest of smiles.

"You know", 'Mr. Lunis' whispered in Lance's ear as they followed the young princess around the bend, "you could have argued that we could pass as atheists. There are plenty of those here on Earth, too, and they don't have as many holiday traditions, if any."

"Yeah, I know," Lance replied. "But these holidays are supposedly about family, and it would probably be a good distraction for her. Besides, it makes her happy, and," Lance shuddered, thinking about the puppy-dog eyes the girl had put on the previous day in front of the fire, "I'd like to see _you_ try and say no to _that_ face."

"Ooh! Ooh! Oct- uh, Dad! Can we get this one? Pretty please?" came Ilana's voice from around the corner, and as her two accomplices approached, she put on her best puppy-dog face as she gestured to a ten-foot tall tree. Lance's face paled at the idea of trying to get the gargantuan thing into the house, but Ilana knew that her sad-face was absolutely irresistabl-

"No", Mr. Lunis monotoned, and kept walking.

"Aww!" Ilana huffed, and hurried to catch up. "Why not?"

"It won't fit through the doorway, much less under the living room roof", came the reply from the old man. "Let's find another."

Ilana took one last glance back at the tree, and shuffled back to rejoin her group. "Fine."

After a few more minutes of strolling through the needle-ridden lot, Lance found himself standing next to the disguised Octus as Ilana bent down and investigated a tree from every angle. It was only after several minutes of Ilana's inspection and her determined declaration of "This one!" that Lance _really_ saw the tree in front of them.

It was barely three feet tall, nearly bare of needles, and was leaning precariously to one side as Ilana tried to straighten it.

They ended up buying it.

 **Three hours later….**

"What do you mean we have to water it?!" Lance exclaimed, exasperated. "It's already dead! Why does it need watering?!"

"It is _not_ dead!" Ilana insisted, stepping back to make sure the tree wasn't leaning anymore.

"We have _literally_ cut it off from all the nutrients it's supposed to get from its roots in the ground."

"And here I thought you didn't pay attention in biology."

"Ilana!"

"Lance, just water it, please", Ilana said, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Lance grumbled buy obeyed, bending over to pour some water into the small bucket that they housed the tiny tree in. "Remind me again why we got this tree."

"Because your princess commanded you to."

Lance immediately stopped watering the tree and looked up at her, unamused.

Ilana looked away, blushing. "…and I may have felt bad for the tree."

"It's a tree, Ilana."

"But it's so small! No one else would have picked it and then it would have been alone for Christmas and wouldn't have had a family to decorate it!"

Lance sighed, rolled his eyes, and continued his watering. "Whatever you say, Ilana."


	3. Two (Hundred) Feet of Lights

**On the second day of Christmas, this planet gave to me…**

" _Two hundred feet_ of Christmas lights?! Ilana, are you _insane_?!" Lance gazed in disbelief at the huge tangle of lights at his feet, then back up at the blushing teenage girl in front of him who was working to straighten them out.

"Well, yeah. I mean, there's this prize the city gives out to the most decorated house-"

Lance groaned and leaned back against the wall he was sitting in front of, dropping the lights from his hands. "Fantastic. Of course."

Ilana huffed and put her hands on her hips as best she could while still sitting. "Oh, come on, Lance! All you have to do is grab a staple gun and put these on the roof trim of the house outside-"

Lance sat straight up, his jaw slightly dropped. " _What_?! Ilana, it's _freezing_ out there! How do you expect us to hang these?!"

Ilana looked down at the string of lights in her hand, and something in her eyes dimmed a bit. Lance was immediately filled with regret, but before he could reassure Ilana that they would do it anyway, he was the princess' eyes light up with the mischievous, determined spark that he so dreaded. "Ilana…?"

"Fine!" She declared, suddenly standing up with the first line of lights that she had untangled, and started to march toward the front door.

"Wait, what are you-?!" Lance called after her, struggling to stand up through the mess of lights that kept dragging him back down.

"If you won't help me, then I'll just hang these by myself!" She shouted behind her, and grabbed the staple gun they had bought earlier before stomping out the door with her single string of lights, shutting the door behind her with a slam.

Lance cursed under his breath as he finally freed himself from the net of lights after a minute of struggling, and rushed out the door after her, not bothering to put back on his boots or even a jacket.

As he rushed out into the driveway, he was her at the top of the ladder they had dragged out from the garage, reaching on her tiptoes to try and add a second staple to the string of lights she had just started to hang.

Lance nearly had a heart attack.

" _Ilana_!" he yelled – almost _shrieked_ , though he would never admit it –"What are you doing?! Get _down_!"

"No!" came the feisty reply from the girl atop the ladder. "I don't care if _you're_ against us celebrating Christmas – _I'm_ still going to!"

Lance hesitated, wondering for a moment if it was worth risking their cover to grab her from the top of the ladder with his Manus armor. His arm hovered over his watch for a second, but before he could make a decision, he saw – to his horror – the bottom of the ladder beginning to slip down a patch of ice on their driveway.

" _Ilana_!"

" _No_ , Lance! I'm doing thi- _eeeeeeek_!" The blonde's protests soon turned to a blood-curdling scream as the top rung of the ladder she was standing on dropped out from under her, and Lance's heart stopped as he saw her falling through the air.

 _"_ _Ooofff-nnnngh!"_

When Newton rushed out the door at the sound of outside commotion half a second later, he came out to the sight of Ilana, with her hands covering her eyes, in Lance's arms. Lance's grunt came at the same time as the slap of the top of the latter connecting with the ground a little to their right, and the staple gun _thunk_ ing to their left. As Ilana moved her hands from her eyes, Lance knelt on one knee, propping the load in his arms up with a leg.

"I leave you two alone for one second to untangle lights and suddenly you're out here! What on Earth happened here?!" Newton demanded, next to them in a second.

"Blame her", Lance grumbled through gritted teeth, face red.

"Um… thanks", Ilana mumbled toward her 'savior'. After a few seconds, when he made no move to put her down, she cleared her throat. Still nothing.

"Um, Lance? Do you think you could let go of me?"

"Hm?" Lance looked up, brow furrowed. "Oh, yeah." He gently tilted her to one side from his arms so she could take Newton's outstretched hand and stand up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks," she replied, and held a hand out to the boy still kneeling on the driveway. She frowned, seeing his bare feet. "Lance! Why don't you have any shoes on?! It's freezing out here, you'll get sick!"

Lance looked up at her with slight irritation in his features, and reached out with his right hand to accept her offer to help him up. "I was kind of in a hurry to ge- _ssssskkkktttt_!" Lance quickly withdrew his hand from Ilana's as if he had been burned, letting out a low hiss of pain. He stood himself, careful not to jostle his arm.

Ilana looked at him, likewise beginning to get irritated. "What? I didn't use my nails or anything, I hardly even pulled you up-"

Octus' monotone diagnosis came from Newton's holographic projection. "Broken arm and sprained wrist."

Ilana's jaw dropped. "What did you say? I must have misheard you-"

"A simple fracture in the ulna accompanied by a distal radius fracture."

Ilana's brow creased. "No, say the first one again, please."

"Broken arm and sprained wrist", Newton repeated. Ilana's jaw dropped further, and Lance groaned under his breath. "As in, Lance has those things. Most likely as a result from the sudden intense pressure applied to both from catching you."

"But she's not even heavy enough to damage anything!" Lance protested, as he began to gesture towards Ilana's petite frame, only to wince again and stop the motion.

Newton took a step closer and squinted at Lance's right arm. "It looks like you have a dislocated shoulder, too."

Lance groaned once more. "Faaaaaantastic."

"No, my sources say that it's actually quite painfu-"

"I _know_ that, Octus!"


	4. Three Injuries

**On the third day of Christmas, this planet gave to me….**

"Yep. That's three separate injuries, right there."

Another groan escaped the teenage boy's lips as the robot continued.

"All in one arm, too. Perhaps if you had distributed Ilana's weight more evenly when you caught her you would have walked away unscathed."

"Thank you, Octus," Lance replied sarcastically, his winces barely noticeable as Octus gently prodded the areas that were beginning to become inflamed.

Ilana stood off to the side, guilt written all over her features. She started to reach out to try and soothe Lance, but quickly retracted her hand at one of his expletives when Octus reached a tender spot. "Lance, I am so, so sosososososo-"

"Sorry?" Despite the pain he was in, the soldier smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, Ilana. It was just an accident. Besides, for all the monsters we've fought over the past couple of months, this probably makes up for all the injuries I miraculously escaped."

Ilana lowered her head and mumbled under her breath. "I still feel bad."

"You think _you_ feel bad?" Lance's attempt at a joke fell incredibly short, and even Octus gave an annoyed look to Lance through his 'Newton' projection. Lance sighed and moved away from the robot's inspection, wrapping his uninjured arm around the blonde girl with a reassuring smile. "Just promise me you won't try and put up Christmas lights by yourself ever again."

Ilana looked up, and returned his smile with a weak one of her own. "I promis-"

"Don't try it even if you're not alone, either."

Ilana's smile fell a tiny bit. "Yes, oka-"

"Or at all, actually. Probably best to just keep your feet on the groun-"

" _I get it_ , Lance."

The boy shrugged as best he could with one working arm, as Newton gave them strange looks from where he stood.

" _That's_ what this was about?" He asked incredulously. At his friends' confused nods, the robot rolled his eyes and walked over to the dropped staple gun and string of lights. The robot absorbed the staple gun through his 'Newton' projection, and then raised an arm. Suddenly, he threw the string of lights up in the air, and small ' _chink'_ s could be heard as 'Newton' released staples from his arm as if they were projectiles, perfectly aimed and perfectly timed to fix the string of lights in a straight line right under the roof's awning. He turned around to see Ilana's astounded expression, and Lance, unsure of whether to be impressed at the robot's skill or frustrated that he now had three separate injuries that could have been easily avoided.

"Next time you want to do a potentially dangerous, yet menial task", Newton told them with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "Please consider that you have the most advanced piece of technology in the universe no more than twenty feet away at any given time."

Lance let out yet another groan, and Newton began to walk toward the front of this house. "We can finish up later. For now, let's fix Lance."


	5. Four Weeks of Healing

**On the fourth day of Christmas, this planet gave to me….**

" _Four weeks_?!"

If Lance hadn't shrieked when Ilana began to fall from the top of the ladder, he was definitely shrieking now.

"Yes, four weeks."

"You mean I have to do one-handed push-ups and pull-ups for four weeks now?!" Lance wasn't sure if he was annoyed or livid.

"No," Ilana looked at him sharply as she rebuked him with the tone of a scolding mother. "It means you don't work out past – _maybe_ – sit-ups and squats for four weeks. If you don't allow yourself to heal properly, it'll take even longer for your arm to get back to normal."

The three aliens were seated in front of the once-more roaring fire, with hot chocolate cooling at their sides yet again. Lance was, predictably, in his armchair, and Ilana was likewise in her beanbag. Octus was kneeling in front of Lance in his robot form, the curtains having been drawn to shield prying eyes from the family's extraterrestrial secrets.

Lance suddenly looked at the robot knelt in front of him desperately, and leaned forward, clapping his good arm onto the 'shoulder' of his friend. "Hey. You. 'Most advanced piece of technology in the universe.'" Lance stuck out his right arm as best he could without wincing. " _Heal me_."

Ilana snickered as a sigh came from the robot. "Lance, the human body is incredibly complex. While I have a thorough understanding of it and all its nuances, I can't rush organic processes. The most I can do is fix your shoulder now and give you a cast and a sling for your arm for the next four months."

Lance groaned once more, then suddenly perked up. "Wait, you can fix my shoulder _now_?"

"Well yes", Octus replied in a voice that implied a frown would accompany it. "But –"

"As in, _now_ now?"

"Yes, Lance, but as I was trying to say –"

"Do it", the boy demanded, leaning forward in his seat.

"Don't you want some pain medication first?" Octus asked with apprehension in his voice.

"The strongest we have in the house is Aleve", Ilana apologized. "I could go grab that if you want."

"No thanks, just fix it now." Lance looked at the robot in determination and moved his shoulder over to the robot.

"Are you sure, Lance? Fixing a dislocated shoulder is-"

"Yes, I'm sure, now just do-"

 _Pop_.

…

" _Auuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhh_!"

Lance grabbed a pillow with his free arm and bit down on it, moisture beginning to pol at the corners of his eyes as Octus relocated his shoulder. Once he regained the ability to speak without shouting, the boy shot his friend an accusatory glance. "What the hell was that?! I thought you said you were going to fix it, not make it worse!"

"I did fix it", Octus replied. "You had a dislocated shoulder. I had to relocate it to fix it. It's pretty much better now, but you should still take it easy. Now, let me see your arm so I can make you a cast."

As Lance's right forearm was encompassed in a bright glow emanating from the robot, Lance looked to Ilana, who wore a mixed expression of pity and guilt.

"Hey, don't sweat it", he reassured her. "It's what I was sent here to do, remember? Protect you." He smiled, and she smiled back.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"….."

"….."

"Uh, do you think you could go grab that Aleve now?"

"What's the magic wooooorddd?~~~"

He glared at her, and she quickly got up and started to jog upstairs.

"Right. Sorry. I'll go grab you some right now."

" _Thank_ you."

"…."

"…."

"Merry Christmas!"

" _Ugh_."


	6. FIVE HOURS OF HOMEWORK

**On the fifth day of Christmas, this planet gave to me….**

"Five hours of homework", Lance groaned, setting down his pen and massaging his hand as best he could.

Ilana glanced over at him from her beanbag, amused. "That _is_ about how much we usually have, Lance. You wouldn't _believe_ the amount of time I spent back on Galaluna learning royal etiquette from my manners instructor."

"Bet you didn't have to do everything as a lefty, though", Lance grumbled under his breath as he picked up his pen and once more began to awkwardly write with his unaccustomed hand.

"Actually", Ilana giggled, "I did."

Lance looked sideways through his bangs in disbelief. "What purpose does _that_ cruel and unusual punishment serve?"

"Oh nothing," Ilana replied, shuffling through her papers. "I'm naturally a lefty, so it would have been worse if I had been made to write with my right hand."

Lance sighed and returned to his homework. "At least I can rest in a couple of days. Thank goodness winter break starts on Saturday…."

"But until then", Ilana hummed, "You have another two days of cheerleaders following you like puppy dogs, offering to carry your backpack for you!"

"Ugh, don't remind me", Lance grumbled. "They try to pass it off as 'holiday spirit', but I think I saw one of them looking through my things when I accepted the offer."

"Also", Ilana thought, tapping her pen against her chin, "You won't even be free on Saturday."

Lance eyed her warily. "What do you mean? It'll be the weekend."

"Yes," Ilana chirped happily, "But that's the day we're going Christmas shopping as a family!"

"What?! But-" Lance tried to protest, but the blonde cut him off.

"No 'But's! We are going shopping together on Saturday and that's final."

"Dinner!" Octus called in from the kitchen, and as the two moved to get up, Lance groaned. Ilana moved to help him up, and as they walked into the kitchen, Lance shot her his best attempt at puppy dog eyes.

"But I'm handicapped with this arm", he said, gesturing to the new black cast that sat on his right forearm and the sling that held it in place. "Surely you would shop faster without m-"

"It's final!" Ilana insisted as she passed through the doorway into the kitchen.

Lance stopped and looked after her in dismay. "…..Ngh."


	7. Six Tubes of Sugar Cookie Dough

**On the sixth day of Christmas, this planet gave to me….**

"Do we really need _six_ tubes of sugar cookie dough?"

Lance looked at his friend in astonishment as she plopped six tubes of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough into her shopping basket, humming as she scanned the aisles for sprinkles.

"But of course! We have to bake cookies tonight for our neighbors, and school friends, and teachers, and Santa, of course!" She replied happily, and walked on ahead.

"But-" Lance looked at Newton, who was raising an eyebrow as if to say, 'You're really arguing with her at this point?' The boy sighed and absentmindedly fiddled with his cast and sling as he followed Ilana down the aisle, grabbing a package of sugar cookie cutters as he went.

"Yeah, okay. Fine."

 **Two hours later….**

Lance looked apprehensively at the sticky goop covering his left hand, experimentally bringing his fingers together and then separating them, watching the dough thin into strands as he stretched it out. "This is gross."

Ilana looked at him out of the corner of her eye and said nothing.

"I mean, we're fondling this dough and then we're going to bake it and give it to people to _eat_?"

"Yes, Lance," Ilana responded patiently. "That's the idea of cooking. It's also why we wash our hands before we touch food." She kneaded the dough once more, then grabbed a rolling pin and began to flatten the mound of raw sugar cookies. "I originally wanted to bake these from scratch, but considering the amount of time it took to scrape the egg and flour from the ceiling last time I tried to make something from scratch, I figured this was much… _safer_." She blushed slightly at the memory of the escapade.

Lance chuckled under his breath and grabbed some flour to make his dough less sticky. "At least you realize what a disaster it was."

"It wouldn't have been so bad if the food hadn't caught fire in the oven!" Ilana laughed, waving a spoon with some dough and flour in the air. Some of the dough separated from the spoon and flew through the air to land on Lance's face, who flinched. "Whoops, sorry about that." Ilana moved to wipe it off his face since his good arm was occupied with his own sugar cookie dough, but he quickly licked the dough off his cheek and then made a thoughtful face.

"Hmmm…" he pondered, then looked at the dough stuck to his hands once more and began to lick them. "Not so gross, actually."

"Lance!" Ilana scolded. "That's unsanitary! Now you'll have to wash your hands all over again!"

"You mean _hand_ ", Lance corrected her as he headed over to the sink. "Can't wash the cast. Anyway, it was worth it, that stuff is good."

As the boy scrubbed up once more, Newton stepped back from the island in the kitchen, wiping his flour-y hands on his apron with a satisfied grin. "Finished!" He held up his tray of molded cookies for the other two to see. "What do you think?"

Lance and Ilana's jaws dropped simultaneously as they eyed the detailed Santa and reindeer cookies perched atop a perfect scaled model of their house. Lance looked over at his own sheet of cookie dough and sighed. "I give up. Can I just bake these as balls of dough?"

Ilana laughed. "Newton, if you wanted to do that, we could have bought ginger bread houses instead!"

He looked at her hopefully. "Next year?"

She smiled. "Sure. Now, let's get that piece of art in the oven!"


End file.
